Companies, in general, have no goddam idea how to put their images and spec sheets online. So you get one gold star there.

But that has got precious little to do with what PR people do. So you lose it again.

PR people ARE lobbyists, you twit. A slightly different term for essentially the same job — taking info and shaping it to be more interesting/useful, and building personal relationships with influencers who will then accept that information with some degree of confidence.

Except that generally lobbyists (because they suckle on the teat of pork-barrel politics) generally get paid more than PR people get paid in their wildest dreams.

Now go away, you uninformed and pointless human being.

But, CES aside, there are things that reporters can do proactively to improve what they receive and how they are contacted.
1. Update your Cision/Vocus profile on your specific beat and how you want to be contacted. Don’t just say “business” as your beat and “contact me through email only.” Be specific as to what you cover and and how you work. For example, “I cover SMBs in the Enterprise IT space.” and “I only like to be contacted through email. Let me assure you I read every mail I receive, but I only respond to those stories that I wish to pursue. So, please don’t robo-call me or spam me. I saw what you sent and I’m just not interested. If you would like me to follow your client/company, please send me a quick email with “Twitter Suggestion: Company Name” in the subject line, and outline for me how your client fits in my beat and the Twitter information. If I find something interesting you Twitter about, I’ll contact you. Cool?”
2. If you are being spammed/robo-called, call the CEO/President of the offending agency and warn them that their staff is annoying you and that you are getting to the point that you won’t look at what they are sending/calling you about. Let them know that if this continues, you will have no choice but to block all emails from their domain, if they do not let their team know how to work with you responsibly. Then, follow through if it doesn’t stop. No agency wants to explain to their client why they can’t get them coverage in a particular publication.

Net-net, PR people can only work with you responsibly if you give them explicit instructions on how to do so, and escalate real problems to invested parties. After all, they want to work with you and give your stories, and you want good stories to come to you.

(again, may have been a legit request tho not quite polite… but her response does seem kinda wack)

I lost count of the cardinal sins of PR that she committed (off-topic pitch, spam, overly-aggro response to an innocuous email…) in the course of her communication with Rich. On the downside, she’s a pariah who probably relishes the free PR she herself is getting from her self-created drama.

I’m so not surprised that she’s been outed repeatedly by sites like the Bad Pitch Blog. She gives the rest of us PR folks who do act responsibly a bad name.

Happy Holidays.

Spam the bitch back!